Dust 514 Officially Launches Today

Dust 514, the first MMO free-to-play shooter for consoles, officially launched today for PlayStation 3. To start playing, just hop on your PlayStation 3, download the game, and start shooting.

Dust 514 is a companion game to EVE Online, with the outcomes of battles of both games having an effect on one another. Dust 514 is a free-to-play title, but you can spend money to speed up the leveling process, and gain access to exclusive gear. Here's what's available to buy now:

Mercenary Pack – An updated version of the popular open beta bundle that includes 40,000 Aurum to spend in-game, a 30-day skill booster (+50%), and exclusive gear. ($19.99)

Developer/Publisher CCP Games has long-term plans for Dust 514 saying, "New features, content, and upgrades are planned for years to come, beginning with an update in June and additional major releases throughout 2013."

As for Dust, it'll be quickly forgotten in a year or so. Putting out a game - with an audacious 10-year plan* - on a console who's successor is 6 months away is stupid. Especially when the response has been lukewarm at best. There are a certain crazy lot who will keep playing Dust, but it will never be a sizable community. It's going to be more Ghost Town than anything in awhile. I really have no idea who this thing is for.

* - seriously CCP? A 10 year plan? What - you think everything you do in the future should be based on the bizarre, fluke success you've had with EVE? That you can rope in another insane user base, addicted to manipulating economics, who will keep playing one game for 10 years? You guys are absolutely nuts. But fine, put all your eggs in the "We'll have crazy people play this for 10 years!" basket; design ALL YOUR GAMES like that. I'm very interested to see how it works out for you.

I've played the beta multiple times, and the shooting is abysmal. IT takes a million shots to kill a single soldier. The weapons totally blow. And the fact that a free to play game has the 'pay to win' idea really pisses me off. If you don't want to spend money, good luck using a piece of crap militia assault rifle or whatever against a freaking mini browning machine gun held by a guy who has a rich daddy. And leveling up was a complete clusterf**k. The User interface totally blows. I didn't know how I could or what I could level up thanks to awful menus.
*** this game.